N.W.T. groups suggest alternatives to budget cuts

The Northwest Territories government should look at ways to earn more money before making big cuts to its budget, say officials from a national union and a Yellowknife social justice group.

Their suggestions include such measures as working out a deal with Ottawa to share resource revenue and taxing companies that profit from the N.W.T.'s natural resources.

"The issue of royalties and [the] transfer of taxation has still not been resolved between the federal and the territorial government," said Jean-François Deslauriers, the Public Service Alliance of Canada's executive vice-president for the north.

"That needs to be taken care of first and foremost, before any cuts are made."

Earlier this week, Premier Floyd Roland said he wants to cut $135 million from the government's operating budget over the next two years, and redirect the money to capital projects the government wants to pursue.

Cuts could have 'deep consequences' on people, jobs

Deslauriers, whose union represents about 3,500 territorial government workers, is asking MLAs to vote against the proposed budget cuts. Such cuts could affect a lot of people and jobs, he said.

"Cutting spending by that much in a two-year period — it doesn't take a genius to realize that it's going to have deep consequences," he said.

Alternatives North, a Yellowknife-based social justice group, said the government could charge a capital investment tax or surtax on high-profit natural resource companies

That could preserve jobs and services that would otherwise be cut, group co-chair Shelagh Montgomery said.

"The corporations that are truly benefiting and not necessarily paying back their fair share can contribute some to the revenues of the Northwest Territories," she said.

'They're obviously worth a lot of money'

Montgomery said she doesn't believe such additional taxes would scare developers away, since the territory's non-renewable resources are valuable and unique to the area.

"It's not like they're setting up a production facility that they could set up anywhere else in the world. The resources are here," she said.

"They're not going to come out of the Northwest Territories unless they're granted permission to do so. And they're obviously worth a lot of money, the diamonds and the potential for the natural gas in the Mackenzie Valley."

Montgomery could not say how much money her proposed taxes would raise, but she said the government could implement them without worrying about the federal government clawing back the revenue they create.

However, Roland said Tuesday that the government will be examining how the budget is spent before looking at how to bring more money in.